Marianne

We are very unsure if we would be best to rent out our house or to sell up. We live
in the UK and if we sell up we would have around £70,000 cash. We have looked around
at many estate agents on the web in areas we like most and could buy somewhere of
reasonable size with money left over. This is very appealing but it would make it
very hard to return to Engalnd in the future to the area we are from as house prices
have always been very high.

Has anyone experience buying property in Australia or renting there house out
in England?.

I would be grateful of all view points

a1macc

HI

I am in exactly the same position at the moment, and am almost certainly (well certain today anyway) that I am going to sell.

House prices in the UK are generally high at the moment, as interest rates start to creep up, and the market overheats anyway the only way for house prices is down, when and by how much is anyones guess. So I think I'm going to capitalise on the current high prices.

Renting is a risk even with a professional agent handling it for you. You could find very good reliable tenants and be very lucky, you could also be very unlucky. I know a property agent who handles rentals, and his advise generally is not to do it. He's got quite a few horror stories!

I'm not sure if I comeback whether I'd be happy moving back to my home (even though I love it) after someone else has been living in it. (especially if it's rented with my furniture!)

These are only my views, as I try to make the same decision you are faced with.

Cheers
AL

shaun/lor

yes we to are in the same situation, but having already tried the letting of a property. with disasterous results we are going to sell.
we had two properties when we first married and let one of them out. a year later our profit was consumed by the 5 thousand pounds it cost me to replace the kitchen and replace the stairs that had been ripped out by the tenent. before doing a runner.
anther thing is the fact that oz house prices in genral seem to be out performing uk increases by a large margin. and finaly there is a capital gains issue if you do dicide to sell your house over here and it is not your main residence. so think carfully.
shaun

Steve

Hi all, Good to see someone else is going through this dilemma. We fluctuate each day
between sell or rent. At the moment we are in favour of selling, the reason being:
what if the house stands empty and we then have to fork out dollars to cover the
mortgage. Also, the clean break aspect is very appealing at the moment.

We do intend to rent for a while in Oz until we decide where we want to live. That is
the other dilemma - what to do with that big stash of money (if we sell) to stop us
doing a spend, spend, spend!

Any thoughts?

Louise

Thunder Ace

[email protected] (steve) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]. com>...
    > Hi all, Good to see someone else is going through this dilemma. We fluctuate each
    > day between sell or rent. At the moment we are in favour of selling, the reason
    > being: what if the house stands empty and we then have to fork out dollars to cover
    > the mortgage. Also, the clean break aspect is very appealing at the moment.
    >
    > We do intend to rent for a while in Oz until we decide where we want to live. That
    > is the other dilemma - what to do with that big stash of money (if we sell) to stop
    > us doing a spend, spend, spend!
    >
    > Any thoughts?
    >
    > Louise

Buy a place, any place, as soon as you get there. Then you have no rental outlay and
you can take your time over a more suitable place to buy. This will give you valuable
experience in the Ozzie property market as well as saving you some cash. If you don't
like that, invest your cash in a long term account where the early withdrawal
penalties will encourage a bit of discipline. Another option is to leave much of the
cash in the UK for the time being. You might then be able to take advantage of a
better exchange rate later on. At least you are in a strong position; I'd rather have
lots of cash to worry about than have bugger all to get me started.

Thunder Ace

Zena

Hi

We're having the same debate at the moment. I'm all in favour of selling the house, both because of the clean break aspect and also because the accounting will be a nightmare- capital gains tax and rental income taxed in both UK and Aus, plus possibility of nightmare tennants. To be fair though, I'm Australian, so I know what I'm letting myself in for and I'm not worried about difficulties returning to the UK (more worried about the possibility of having to return!).

My British boyfriend feels differently. For him, selling the house would be like burning his bridges. It was always our plan to keep the house until we were sure that we're staying in Australia for good. I was happy with this until I looked into things in more detail.

So, for my two cents... Sell the house before you go, take the money with you and buy in Australia when you find an area you like. I wouldn't keep the house unless your move to Australia isn't a permanent one.

Cheers
Zena

Aussie Girl

As an Australian living in the UK - also in the same situation as yourselves (moving
back to Oz) - I would definitely suggest selling your UK property.

I agree with all the other reasons given (eg bad tenants etc). But you will also gain
a much higher standard of living in Australia, even with just £70,000 to spend on a
home there. Compare a one or two bedroom flat or terrace house, with a three bedroom
detached home minutes from town, with double garage, pool, BBQ area, large
yard/garden, etc etc.

The only down side is that despite various news articles in the last 12 months,
investment in property in Australia isn't as good as in the UK. Don't expect to make
any money when you sell a property in Oz, unless you've chosen a very trendy area
(and therefore spent a fortune for it!) or made huge improvements to the property.
It's not like the UK where you can buy a property, hang on to it for two years, and
make £20,000 on it with no effort.

Renting in Oz costs relatively the same as a mortgage, but you'll end up with nothing
for your money in the long run. Most rental agencies are like those in the UK.
Minimum rental is six months, and you need proof of income/employment. Also take some
references with you if you've rented in the UK.

Whether you're going to rent or buy, a great website is www.realestate.com.au. You
can search by area, cost etc, and it represents most real estate agents.

Other than that, all I can say is that you will really love Australia. The lifestyle
is fantastic and you are in the most ideal position of coming from the UK, where
you'll triple your money with the exchange rate!

Cheers, Margot